How does YOUR character cast spells?

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The Dark Gun
 
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How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby The Dark Gun » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:28 am

It's just a little something I've been wondering about lately. I mean, holy spell casters recieve their powers from devine beings, and wizards use arcane knowledge and an attunation to the astral plane to cause their spells to happen... But what does your character actually do? Do they wave their hands and recite an incantaion? Trace out an arcane sigil in the air while naming the spell? What?


Skull Dragon 2
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Skull Dragon 2 » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:42 am

Kyanosa/Canopus - Don't need to wave their hands or say any incantations, but usually do just for the sake of style.

SD/Dirk - Don't care about style. Just kinda point. More intimidating to make it look easy.

Addison - Has memorized incantations, but usually mumbles so nobody can hear them and think of a counter before he gets the spell off. He also does his hand-waving with as little movement as possible until a big motion is required, like touching somebody to set them on fire.

Other chars - Either don't use magic or use mental magic. Everybody should have a few magicless characters. You really learn to hate people with forty spells handy. <p>
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Mechanisto
 
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How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Mechanisto » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:50 am

In a system RP, i'm betting that as long as the magic system obeys certain laws and rules, the sky is the limit. Traditional sorcery requires a free range of motion for complex hand motions, as well as a spoken component. Of course, your character could probably have a Vegetable Magic skill, with a focus on Avacado and Asparagus spells. Pretty much all magic types fall under four categories; Sympathetic, Theistic, Instructive, or Administrative.

Most magic requires words or motions purely as a focal device for the caster; it is possible to cast them silently and without motion, but the habit of motion or sound makes it greatly easier to control something as abstract as magic. I was strongly considering making a dancer character where spells were evoked by complex dances. I decided to focus on martial arts and combat, and dropped the magic alltogether; but it's still an intriguing idea.

I, however, am working on an Abrogative Mage. Thinking about Abrogative magic too hard will turn your brain inside out, I fear.. Image <p>---
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JoshuaDurron
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby JoshuaDurron » Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:56 am

Joshua Durron (RPGWW edition)-

He's a priest, but he swears no real alligance to any one deity. As a result he calls on the powers of Celestials who share his ideals to reach the same effects as normal holy mages. (Ideal Celestials are detailed in Pervy's notes on Celestials.)

Thomas Dumat-

Same as above, as he was the founder Durron's order. o_o

Ayri Vedsen-

Ayri is a Spellsong bard, who casts spells by singing. ^_^ Like most bards, her songs can cause various status effects, but they can also be used as focused 'dissonance waves' which cause actual damage to the target, and can leave lingering disruptions (manifested as poisons) in a person's blood. She uses a magical staff to produce music, and sings when casting, and without the ability to do either, her spells become useless.

Joshua Durron (ANTag edition)-

OK, so he's not a character here. But he DOES weild an unusual brand of psionics, and thus gets a brief note here. Essentially, how his psionics manifest directly relate to his current mental state and willpower. If he's in pain and the greatest desire he has is to reduce the pain, he can accellerate healing. If, on the other hand, his greatest desire is to kill something, head popping is not entirely impossible. As a result, he has now real permanent techniques. The three exceptions to this rule are 1) the ability to manifest psionic blades/whips, 2) the 'Mind Storm' technique, which involves massive psionic disruptions anywhere within twenty five feet of Durron, and 3) the 'Total Reversion', which is VERY difficult to describe...

Greg Wilson-

He's an archer. He doesn't have magic. o_o

George Field Wilson VI-

He's a janitor... he doesn't have magic.

Siff, the Slithzerikai-

A typical mage, only he's a lizard with a spear too. He chants (hisses?) spells, along with the ocasional rune tracing in thin air. He can also channel the power of a wind demon through the Orb of Thrani. <p>

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Death to pretenders</p>Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=joshuadurron>JoshuaDurron</A] at: 4/14/03 11:58:14 am

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Jak Snide
 
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Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Jak Snide » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:25 pm

Jak casts by his will alone, drawing mana into himself as any normal made would, but mostly without the chanting. Any chanting is meaningless, and only serves to help him concentrate.


Divinegon2130
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Divinegon2130 » Mon Apr 14, 2003 12:38 pm

Only gonna describe the 'big' spellcasters here. Most of my characters rely on small amounts of gesturing and smaller amounts of chanting, but there are exceptions.

Derill Banetail - Most of his magic requires chants and gestures (most of his chants are simply yelling out the spell's name) for it to work. However, he has a small amount of psionic powers that he can use when he's surrounded, which brings up this little note. His psionics, besides basic telepathy, are amplified by the three horns on his head - if any of those is broken, it takes a lot more effort for Derill to use his psionic powers.

Daryl Sparkfist - Definitely no flashy stuff here. No chants at all, just one gesture to suggest what the spell does.

Zukath Bladejaw - Another one to rely mostly on gestures. However, he gives a much bigger clue as to what he's casting, because sometimes part of him starts to glow - for example, if he's trying to counter a spell, his spine may start glowing a bluish color.

Char'rynn Nizico Strasz - She has a specific chant for each and every spell - sometimes it's quietly said, as is the case for most of her healing spells, but other times it must be stated aloud. Very rarely will she gesture, and if she does it's only because she's directing the spell.

Numai - A good number of his spells have a specific chant, most frequently stated in the form of a haiku. However, a select few of his spells require dances for them to work - mainly because a dance is the only thing that gives him the mental focus he needs for those spells. <p>

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The Dark Gun
 
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Hrrmm...

Unread postby The Dark Gun » Mon Apr 14, 2003 1:45 pm

I have to wonder, does how your character cast spell have any effect on status effects in-game? I mean, a number of the people here cast through pure concentration... Does that mean they can cast while paralyzed, or what?


Yari Koneko
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Yari Koneko » Mon Apr 14, 2003 1:46 pm

Alrighty, let's see:

Pelm: She uses incantations, usually to help her remember which spell she's casting, as if she forgets (and she often does), results are disastrous.

Koneko: Depends. When normal spellcasting, he tends to chant an incantation, but not wave his hands, just to focus on and focus in the spell. When he goes berzerk, he tends to draw upon the magical energy that resides in his blood. (Kind of like blook magic, but not.) This is kinda painful, but exponentially more powerful than normal.

Zixon and Gathoniel actually draw upon their own innate magic to cast spells. As such, there's no chanting or hand-waving, but they may do so anyway to spellcast incognito. <p>------------

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Choark
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Choark » Mon Apr 14, 2003 2:11 pm

In a kinda odd thing what this also means is people can use magic as quickly as Choark can swing his Warhammer around. ^_^

Lest that what I guess happens when ya use PS as I couldn't see Choark not swinging his Warhammer around while a magicain say did this:

Held a loof his mighty hands, the thunder cracked from his fingers the sky opened. A terrible howling was heard from this void that rocked the very earth the team was stood upon. Bringing his hands down he pointed at the team and a huge magical wave of darkness washed over and ripped through the very air.
"Darkness Matter Rush!" Said the rather imaganative magician.

now lets place Choark in this with a *swing* shall we, to represent how many times he'd probably atack durring this.

Held a loof his mighty hands *swing*, the thunder cracked from his *swing* fingers the sky opened. A terrible *swing* howling was heard from this void that rocked *swing* the very earth the team was *swing* stood upon. Bringing his *swing* hands down he pointed at the team *swing* *swing* and a huge magical wave of darkness washed over and ripped through the very air.
"Darkness Matter Rush!" Said the rather imaganative magician.

*laughs* Or I've been dieing to do that "joke" for ages and now was a good a time as any. =D

-edit-

Note that Choark did not attack after the magician did his spell as he was probably blown far far away. Luckily magicians are actually invanurable while casting spells, like we all are while giving speeches in the middle of battle *nods*, so none of these attacks did the poor fellow any harm.

No magicians were hurt while making this post. And no barbarian ninja was harmed any more then he could take.

Edited by: [url=http://pub30.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=choark>Choark</A]&nbsp; Image at: 4/14/03 2:15:35 pm

Skull Dragon 2
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Skull Dragon 2 » Mon Apr 14, 2003 2:52 pm

Actually, a couple of boards ago when we had seven-page RP posts, our admin was really fond of making all of his characters, good and evil, give huge speeches about their superiority in the middle of battles. Whenever I had a chapter with a fight against one of his guys, I would make a point of proving that it's objectively unfeasibile. Did the same whenever we had chat battle or spars, and a bunch of people did the same thing to a lesser extent.

Two years and he never got it. I blame the three-foot lead ego. <p>
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Uncle Pervy
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Uncle Pervy » Mon Apr 14, 2003 3:00 pm

In the case of most of my characters, they tend to do it by force of will. Chanting tends to be used as an aid to concentration; and the better the spellcaster, the less they need to do it.

Enlil is the exception; she has to sing to do her magic; but the effects take place within seconds, and last as long as she devotes herself to singing. <p><div style="text-align:center">Image Image Image Image Image ImageImage</div></p>

Blaze Yamato Spirit
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Blaze Yamato Spirit » Mon Apr 14, 2003 3:36 pm

Most of my characters cast magic via concentration, though there are some exceptions, two of which I'll give here -

Jennastarridae Baseton the Song Dragon Bard- casts magic via singing/playing instruments. She also has a few special techniques, but these involve nothing more than concentrating and that she be in a certain frame of mind.

Adibar the Human Shadow Mage- He doesn't chant in the standard sense. He knows about 10 "power words" which all describe darkness or shadow in various languages, which he strings together to help him focus his power. He doesn't HAVE to use these, but they do increase the power of his spells slightly.

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Banjooie
 
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Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Banjooie » Mon Apr 14, 2003 4:45 pm

....
If you've EVER seen the Neo Vanists, you KNOW how they cast spells.

But I'll go indepth.

There is, of course, the basic hop/spin, hop/spin, hop/spin, which I will actually narrow down to a system one of these days, and the phrase after. Which will also get it's own system.

As for the chanting itself...

Neo Vanists don't learn spells. They learn a language. And they chant basically what they want. Like, for example, for a simpler spell...
"Wind dragon large circling medium length no strength highly visible"
In that particular language. And a purely ornamental gust of wind, which looks rather like a large dragon, would breeze about in circles for a few minutes.

They COULD potentially just shape it in their mind, but it generally comes out not as fine tuned looking and is a bit harder to control.

Particularly flashy or problematic occasions will probably prompt the Neo Vanist to cast a 'Pre-spell', which is essentially a few words to make the hop spin a little more impressive looking, and could save his life.

Let's take Fenron, the fire mage.
And let's take your average angry goblin. Rawr.

Fenron needs a bit of time to cast his spell, so...
"Fire Spiral Short Cone" gives him a cone of fire around his person. The goblin can rush, but will probably get burnt. As such, Fenron has more time to chant the entire spell, which could be something like, for particular control.

"Snake of Fire, attack my enemies with a tongue of flame and coil your burning embers around them!"

And, true to the spell, a long snaked-shaped form of fire would spring forth from his hand and do what he has instructed.

It's all in how descriptive one is when chanting the spell. Of course, this doesn't free the Neo Vanist from his need to conserve magical energy. They can tire astrally just like anyone else.
Therefore,
"Giant beam of death which completely and utterly obliterates everyone ever"
Wouldn't do anything, and would probably, if it didn't fail utterly, do nothing but harm the Neo Vanist, if not kill.

...So, yeah. "Check this out!"
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Endesu
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Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Endesu » Mon Apr 14, 2003 6:15 pm

End - Concentrates and draws out some of his own inherent energy, focuses it into an 'attack form', and casts from there.

Astrynax - Similar to End, but fluctuates the way the attack is performed based on his preference. This meaning that he can cast a spell via a single finger ('finger beam'), a hand, two hands, his entire body, etc. <p>

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Elementalist Daien
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Elementalist Daien » Mon Apr 14, 2003 6:46 pm

Well, it depends on the character.
-----------


Daien, it just comes naturally. He is able, as an elementalist, to concentrate and bend the elemental spells to his will. It is only slightly different when it comes to other spells, as in he chants a bit, but it still isn't the most important. If he wants to impress, he'll chant, though.

Day is the same story, except that he never uses chants and stuff like that. Not that Daien isn't able to do that, but Daien takes everything much more seriously.


D is another story. He's not that good in magic things, and as such has learnt all his spells, the few he knows, totally by heart, such as reciting a poem from a book, only much cooler, and special effects-y. Sure, it requires astral manipulation and stuff, but he learnt that, and won't improvise to save his life.

Lien controls magic according to his mood. He changes form to accompany this. How and why will be seen later if I feel like it.



... That is all the important ones, I guess. The rest... Well, just ask. =P



SALSAlys
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby SALSAlys » Mon Apr 14, 2003 8:31 pm

Well, most of my characters are fairly typical... either trained or use magic as an innate part of themself. Only exception I can think of is Katyana, because she's from a different world, using something she calls the 'smell-sense'.

Basically, it focusses on adapting the scent of a person or thing, tweaking it into becoming what you want to be. Like how the dry ingredients of bread smell different than baked? She changes the smell, and thus alters, making it baked!

...not a very good analogy, but close enough.


AbbaTerra
 

Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby AbbaTerra » Wed Apr 16, 2003 10:59 am

Terra Rose - She casts magic by singing and force of Will but uses gestures... That second bit is just for her Fire Magic. She has a Fire-magic affinity but doesn't like to use it.

Aaron Drake - He chants for concentration and also gestures.

Robyn Muketsu - She casts magic by bleeding. Gesture and force of will are actually a large part of her magic too and she could actually cast some magic without bleeding first, but she believes it's necessary for her to bleed in order to use magic.

Noniki - He casts magic by force of will. He doesn't need to say anything or gesture, but with his new job at the Wyvern's Eyrie, it's part of the requirement to be a stage magician.

Reia Amethyst - has no magic.

Kaeli and Wynter Eldon - cast magic through will & gestures

I kinda want to add that Aaron is the only one that has done formal-style school-book education. Terra is a natural, Robyn's a natural, but she has enforcing education, and Noniki's a natural, but his full power is sealed. Kaeli learned through apprenticeship and so did Wynter. The two of them have never studied books but learned by example and guidance. <p><div style="text-align:center">
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Spleen
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Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby Spleen » Wed Apr 16, 2003 2:48 pm

Seryntas, better known as Spleen, gets his magic from Krad, the Elemaeran God of Fire. Elemaeran magic is kind of like Neo Vanic: Basically, the caster shouts stuff in the magic language and their god makes it happen. However, the magic language is EXTREMELY complicated, so casters just learn a few choice phrases (which have been refined over thousands of years to be more effective and faster to cast). To prevent their subjects from getting megalomaniacal and trying to take all their energy for themselves, the gods have put a quota of how powerful a spell they can cast and how many spells on each person according to their rank in the various Orders. Spleen is a Burning Master, which means he's pretty near as high as he can get in the Order of Fire. However, Seryntas's magic limit is pretty low as Burning Masters go, because he's also a very powerful swordsman and not actually Elemaeran by birth (he's Gaeran). <p>_________________
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WillBaseton
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Re: How does YOUR character cast spells?

Unread postby WillBaseton » Thu Apr 17, 2003 12:18 am

Will: Casts magic two ways, through regular chants and via the runes within his body. It is rumored that he holds at least forty runes within himself.

Really, besides Will, all of my characters use the traditional chant system, some recieving power from their patron gods, others deriving power from within themselves. <p>
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Ronin
 

feh

Unread postby Ronin » Thu Apr 17, 2003 1:23 am

My only magic user, Rendair(I am bad at thinking up names) casts by chanting an incantation that is half a prayer to Tzelgami, half a normal magic incantation, depending on the spell he may do a variety of things, take for example the spell shadow wall, he will chant a prayer to Tzelgami(godess of shadow) while drawing a line with his foot on the ground in front of him.



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